Light-emitting diode (LED) light sources (such as, for example, LED light engines) are often used in place of or as replacements for conventional incandescent, fluorescent, or halogen lamps, and the like. LED light sources may comprise a plurality of light-emitting diodes mounted on a single structure in a suitable housing. LED light sources are typically more efficient and provide longer operational service as compared to incandescent, fluorescent, and halogen lamps. In order to illuminate properly, an LED driver is typically coupled between an alternating-current (AC) source and the LED light source for regulating the power supplied to the LED light source. The LED driver may regulate either the voltage provided to the LED light source to a particular value, the current supplied to the LED light source to a specific peak current value, or both the current and the voltage. Examples of LED drivers are described in greater detail in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 8,492,987, issued Jul. 23, 2010, and U.S. Pat. No. 8,680,787, issued Mar. 25, 2014, both entitled LOAD CONTROL DEVICE FOR A LIGHT-EMITTING DIODE LIGHT SOURCE, the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
As the electrical infrastructure changes to accommodate renewable energy sources (e.g., wind power, photovoltaic solar power, full cells, etc.), it is likely that there will be a movement towards DC power distribution as this is the native version of generation for many of these technologies. For example, photovoltaic solar arrays generate DC power and often this is directly stored in batteries. From there, power may be provided directly from the batteries, or it may be inverted to alternating current for use by appliances. With this anticipated move to a DC power bank, it would be desirable to provide power directly as DC power rather than convert it to AC power. Many AC electrical loads actually use DC power to perform their functions, and traditionally require rectification, and often, active power factor correction (PFC), to make the AC power useful to the electrical load. However, the rectification and active power factor correction operations introduce an efficiency loss.